The invention relates to a holder for mounting a plate, such as a front plate, a contact protective plate or a circuit card, within an enclosure for electric installations, which enclosure comprises a bottom part and which holder is constituted by an elongated member comprising a body part and having at least at one end a hole for fastening the holder to the bottom part, wherein at least one end of the holder comprises an expanding wedge part arranged to expand against the bottom part, when a fastening means is mounted in a hole at the end of the holder, whereby a support surface is attached to the wedge part, the support surface being intended to press the wall of the bottom part for fastening the holder by friction joint within the enclosure at a desired height from the bottom of the bottom part.
Many kinds of holders are known for mounting plates in enclosures for electric installations. Depending on the application, the plates have to be mounted at different heights of the enclosure, which means that the distance between the plate and the bottom of the enclosure varies subject to the enclosure in question and its content. Known holders are fastened at the right height from the bottom of the enclosure by using spacing or elevation pieces of different lengths. Elevation pieces are typically sleeve-like pieces, which are screwed into the bottom of the enclosure, whereby a plate to be fastened is screwed to the upper end of the sleeves. Mounting elevation pieces takes time. Each plate requires four elevation pieces. Normally, eight screws in total are used for fastening a plate.
If changes are made in the content of the enclosure later, a need to change the height position of the plate in the enclosure may easily arise. A choice has to be made then from a great number of elevation pieces. It is naturally inconvenient to use elevation pieces of several different sizes for mounting. In addition, several different elevation pieces are inconvenient for the manufacture and storage as well.
In order to overcome said problems, height-adjustable holders have been disclosed in EP-A1-0 496 458, DE 40 33 109 A1 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,908,733. These holders are, however, fairly complicated in their construction and they require the walls of the bottom part to be provided with fastening means for the holders.